USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 43
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Although the Ish & Hailey and Thomas lines were the principal ones in the Boise Basin, up to the time that Ben Holladay entered the field, other stage lines were soon established. Greathouse & Company put on a stage business between Placerville and Idaho City, via Centerville, a distance of twelve miles, making two trips daily; Ward & Company established a tri-weekly line between Idaho City and Boise City, thirty-six miles, but soon sold out to Greathouse & Com- pany: the Barnes & Yates stages carried passengers tri-weekly between Boise City and Silver City, sixty-five miles, until the spring of 1865, when the line was
JOHN HAILEY AND FOUR OF HIS FAITHFUL OLD STAGE DRIVERS, SAMUEL HOWRY, OF BOISE; JOHN R. CARPENTER, OF EAGLE; THOMAS RANNACHAN, OF BOISE; WILLIAM SHAW, OF BAKER CITY
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purchased by Hill Beachy, formerly of Lewiston. Early in 1865 William Ish sold his interest in the Umatilla line to his partner and bought a half interest in the Thomas line between the Express Ranch and Walla Walla. Later in the year John Hailey bought a part of this outfit, the rest was sold to other parties, and the Thomas, Ish & Company stage company went out of business.
Hill Beachy, Henry Greathouse, John Hailey and Samuel Kelly then, by con- solidating their interests, became the controlling factors in the transportation business in Idaho. In 1866 they took a sub-contract to carry the mail three times a week between Boise City and Virginia City, Nevada, and about the same time Capt. John Mullan, builder of the Mullan road in Northern Idaho, opened a stage line between Silver City and Red Bluffs, California. Both the Virginia City and the Red Bluffs lines ran through a country infested by marauding Indians and the stage companies suffered considerably through the attacks on the stations and the stealing of horses by the savages.
An effort to reduce the cost of transportation was made in the spring of 1866 by B. M. Durell & Company, who opened what they called a "fast freight line" from Umatilla to Olds' Ferry on the Snake River, about ninety miles northwest of Boise. The idea was to run a steamboat on the Snake from Olds' Ferry to the ferry where the stage line between Boise and Silver City crossed the river, about thirty-three miles from Boise, where passengers and freight would be transferred to the stage company. A steamboat called the "Shoshone" was built for the purpose and made its first trip on May 16, 1866. If the ex- periment proved to be successful, Durell & Company hoped to extend the river traffic to Salmon Falls, from which point new territory might be opened, but in- this hope they were to be disappointed. The boat could not go above the mouth of the Bruneau River, and the cost of loading and unloading the freight made the method more expensive than to haul straight through by wagon. After a few trips the boat tied up until high water in the spring of 1867, when it was run down to the Columbia River, where it was placed in commission.
In November, 1866, Ben Holladay sold the Overland to Wells, Fargo & Com- pany, but the change in ownership did not affect the service in Idaho. Early in 1867 Hill Beachy bought the interests of his three partners in the line between Silver City and Virginia City. A little later a deal was consummated by which Samuel Kelly became the proprietor of the line between Boise and Silver City, Henry Greathouse got all the stage business in the Boise Basin, and Hailey the lines from Boise to Umatilla, Walla Walla and The Dalles, which ran daily stages and carried the United States mails under sub-contract, as well as the Wells, Fargo & Company express matter.
Greathouse sold his business in 1868 to the Pinkhams, and Samuel Kelly dis- posed of his stage line between Boise and Silver City to John Early. On the last day of September, 1868, the old Holladay contract for carrying the mails between Salt Lake City, Helena and Boise expired and the new contract was awarded to C. M. Lockwood. Holladay's successors, Wells, Fargo & Company, then sold the stage line between Ogden and Helena to Salisbury, Gilmore & Com- pany. Lockwood restocked the line between Salt Lake City and Boise and gave John Hailey a sub-contract to carry the mails between Boise and The Dalles. On February 1, 1869, Hailey purchased Lockwood's entire interest and succeeded to the mail contracts. When the Union and Central Pacific railroads were
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completed in May, 1869, the postoffice department made Kelton, on the Cen- tral Pacific, the terminus of the mail route and the stage line between that point and Salt Lake City was abandoned.
On June 30, 1870, the Lockwood mail contract expired and Hailey sold out to the Northwestern Stage Company, which was awarded the new contract for four years. This company also bought out the lines operated by John Early and the Pinkhams, virtually obtaining a monopoly of the stage business, Salis- bury, Gilmore & Company being the only competitor. In July, 1878, Mr. Hailey re-entered the field by purchasing an interest in the business of Salisbury, Gil- more & Company, which operated about two thousand miles of stage routes in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and California.
During the following years there were a few changes of ownership in the stage lines, but the important ones, to Umatilla, Walla Walla, The Dalles, Vir- ginia City and Winnemucca, Nevada, etc., made little or no change in the char- acter of the service. As new mining districts were opened additional stage and freight lines were established for their accommodation.
INDIANS AND ROAD AGENTS
The life of the stage coach driver was by no means all sunshine and roses. Hostile Indians frequently burned the station buildings along the routes, killed the stock keepers and ran off the horses. They were especially annoying on Hill Beachy's line between Silver City, Idaho, and Virginia City, Nevada, and on some of the Hailey lines in the Burnt River country. Major Marshall, com- mandant at Fort Boise, often sent an escort of troops with the stages over the most dangerous portions of the roads, and as the country settled up the depreda- ' tions ceased.
In the chapter on Pioneer Days mention is made of the operations of the Plummer gang in robbing stage coaches plying between Salt Lake City and Helena in the '6os. About 1877 an organized gang of highwaymen-commonly called "road agents"-began a systematic robbery of stage coaches and their passengers throughout the western states and territories, occasionally "holding up" an express train on the railroads. These outlaws would stop a stage at some lonely place on the road, compel the passengers to alight, go through their pockets and baggage in search of money, break open the Wells-Fargo treasure box, and then keep the stage covered with their guns until it was out of range. In a large majority of cases the robbers were caught and most of the money taken by them was recovered.
A typical instance of this kind occurred in Idaho in the year 1880. The stage line of Salisbury, Gilmore & Company between Boise and Kelton crossed the Snake River at Glenns Ferry. South of the river the first stop for the stage was at "Pilgrim Station," where the horses were changed. The station was lo- cated in a lonely spot and was occupied only by the agent. The south-bound stage did not reach the station until after dark and the company had placed a large kerosene lamp on a post, so that the driver could see where to stop and also to facilitate the change of horses. One evening two men dropped into the station a short time before the stage was due, bound and gagged the keeper and confined him in one of the stalls in the stable. When the stage arrived the two road agents compelled the driver and the single passenger to dismount from the box, keeping
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them covered with revolvers to make sure they obeyed, after which they threw the mail sacks out of the boot, broke open the treasure box, finding nothing in it except a few papers, and then taking some of the provisions in the station they mounted their horses and rode away in the darkness.
The company was notified as soon as possible and Orlando (Rube) Robbins was employed to run down and capture the outlaws. With a description of the men, he started in pursuit and about a week later brought them to Boise. They were tried before Judge H. E. Prickett in the United States Court of the Terri- tory of Idaho and under a Federal statute fixing the penalty for "robbing the carrier of the United States mail and placing his life in jeopardy," they were sentenced to the penitentiary for life.
The stage drivers of the early days cut an important figure and were con- sidered among the prominent citizens. In fact, many of them became celebrated in the annals of the West. Of course, the building of the railroads put an end to the old stage coaching days, except on the smaller lines running from railroad points, but the thrilling stories told of the old drivers have continued to be retold to the present day. Many of these drivers were men who became celebrated in the romance and adventure of the Western frontier. Hank Monk, who drove on the old overland route from Salt Lake City to Placerville, will always be noted for his famous trip upon which Horace Greeley was a passenger. Many of the other drivers on the overland routes became equally famous and among those who were well known by all of the old timers and whose memories are still fresh in the minds of many of the present generation, are Jack Gilmer, Billy Opdyke, "Bishop" West, Billy Hice, Charley Haynes, "Old" Tutweiler, and "Keno" Arm- strong. The latter once drove, so the legend goes, 610 miles in 110 hours with- out sleep. But few of these old well known drivers still survive. Sam Howry, a noted driver on the overland from Boise to The Dalles, still lives in Boise, as does Thomas Rannahan, a survivor of Forsythe's great Beecher Island fight with the Indians in 1868, and who continued to drive stages much of the time in Idaho until the advent of the railroads. Mr. Rannahan, still hale and vigorous in spite of his eighty years, lives in Boise respected by all.
With very few exceptions, the stage driver was a man in every sense of the word, but one who had to be reckoned with. He was not quarrelsome, but when occasion required, he could usually "hit hard and shoot straight." He belonged to a time in the history of the West that has passed never to return, but during the time that their services were employed in the building up of the great inter- mountain country none were more faithful in the discharge of their duty or more reliable in their dealings with their fellow men.
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CHAPTER XXII HISTORY OF IDAHO RAILROADS
FIRST RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES-EARLY OPPOSITION-TRANSCONTINENTAL LINES-THE UNION PACIFIC-CENTRAL PACIFIC-IDAHO'S FIRST EFFORT TO SE- CURE A RAILROAD-UTAH & NORTHERN-OREGON SHORT LINE-CONSOLIDATION -BRANCH LINES-NORTHERN PACIFIC-OREGON RAILWAY & NAVIGATION COM- PANY-GREAT NORTHERN-CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL-OTHER RAIL- ROADS-ELECTRIC LINES-MILEAGE & VALUATION IN 1917.
The first railroad in the United States was completed in 1827. It was three miles in length, running from the granite quarries at Quincy, Massachusetts, to the sea coast, and was constructed for the purpose of transporting the stone for Bunker Hill monument to the barges that were to carry it to Boston. The cars on this road were drawn by horses.
Robert Fulton demonstrated to the world in 1807 that steam could be used as a power in propelling vessels upon the water, and thoughtful men began to consider the advisability of applying it to land transportation. In 1827 a rail- road nine miles long was built from Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to some coal mines and steam was used as the motive power. In the construction of this first steam railway in the United States wooden rails were used, with a strap of iron nailed on the top to prevent wear. The locomotive was a diminutive affair-about the size of the engines used by threshermen of the present day- and the cars would not carry over five tons of coal each. Wrecks were frequent, due to the working loose of the nails through the iron strap. Yet a railroad even of this crude character awakened capitalists to the possibilities of steam as a means of land transportation. Through their influence the legislatures of sev- eral states granted charters to railroad companies during the decade following the completion of the Mauch Chunk line. Many of these charters were obtained for speculative purposes only and the active era of railroad building did not come until some years later. The first passenger railway in the United States was the Baltimore & Ohio, begun July 4, 1828 and completed to Ellicott's Mills. (44 miles) in 1830. Horses were used until 1830, when an engine built at York, Pa., was put in service. The Charleston & Hamburg road, begun Janu- ary, 1830, had 137 miles of road in 1833; the longest railway in the world at that date.
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EARLY OPPOSITION
Considering the network of railroads that now covers the entire nation, it seems almost incredible that any intelligent person should ever have opposed their construction. Yet such was the case. In 1828 some young men of Lan- caster, Ohio, formed a debating society and asked the school board to permit them to use the school house for their meetings. The first question for dis- cussion was whether railroads were feasible as a means of transportation. To the request of the society the school board replied as follows:
"We are willing to allow you the use of the school house to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads we regard as rank infidelity. If God had ever intended his children to travel over the face of the country at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, He would have foretold it clearly through his holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lure immortal souls to hell."
While this incident has no direct bearing upon the railroads of Idaho, the story is introduced to show how some people looked upon the railroad less than a century ago. The railroad company of the present that could not run its trains faster than fifteen miles an hour would neither receive nor deserve a great amount of patronage and the stockholders would not be likely to draw profitable dividends upon their holdings. Yet this rate was considered "fright- ful" in 1828 by the members of the Lancaster school board, men who were chosen, no doubt, for their wisdom and executive ability and entrusted with the education of the young people of that city. By the time Idaho Territory was organized in 1863, public opinion had undergone a radical change. The railroad was no longer regarded as "rank infidelity" by any intelligent person, but had become one of the established institutions of the country. People every- where looked upon it as one of the most potent agencies of civilization.
TRANSCONTINENTAL LINES
As early as 1819, eight years before the construction of the little Mauch Chunk Railroad, Robert Mills, of Virginia, proposed a "cross-country" railway. His views on the subject were first presented to the public through the news- papers, and later to Congress in a communication in which he suggested, "if found to be practicable, steam propelled carriages for quickened service across the continent, to run from the headwaters of inland navigation over a direct route to the Pacific." Mr. Mills was several years in advance of the times, and little attention was paid to his suggestions and theories, though there is no question that he was the first man to propose a transcontinental railway.
About 1834, Asa Whitney, of New York : Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; Butler S. King and General Robinson, of Pennsylvania; Thomas H. Benton, of Mis- souri, and a number of other foresighted and public-spirited men, urged the construction of a railroad from some point on the Missouri River to the Pacific coast. Nothing definite was accomplished at that time and the subject lay dor- mant for nearly twenty years. . In 1853 Salmon P. Chase introduced in the United States senate a bill providing for surveys of four routes to the Pacific coast, to wit: I. From the Upper Mississippi River via the Yellowstone Val- ley to Puget Sound : 2. Along or near the thirty-sixth parallel, through Walker's Pass of the Rocky Mountains, to strike the coast somewhere near Los Angeles or San Diego, California : 3. . \ line through the Rocky Mountains near the
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headwaters of the Rio del Norte and Huerfano rivers, via the Great Salt Lake Basin ; 4. A line along the thirty-second parallel, via El Paso and the Valley of the Colorado, to strike the coast somewhere in Lower California.
Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, sent five engineering parties into the West to examine and report upon the feasibility of constructing a transcon- tinental railway on one or more of five different routes. One of these surveys was made for a road between the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels, known as the "Northern Route;" the second was between the forty-first and forty-third parallels, called the "Central Route;" the third followed the thirty-ninth par- allel and was called the "Buffalo Trail;" the fourth followed the thirty-fifth parallel, starting from the Missouri River near Kansas City; and the fifth ran near the thirty-first parallel, via El Paso, and was called the "Southern Route." By what authority Mr. Davis took this action is not certain, but under date of January 27, 1855, he made complete report of what had been done in the way of surveying or reconnoitering the routes mentioned.
Soon after this report was made, Stephen A. Douglas, then United States Senator from Illinois, introducd a bill proposing three routes to the Pacific coast -one from the headwaters of the Mississippi or Missouri River, via the Yel- lowstone Valley, to be known as the "Northern Pacific;" one from some point on the western boundary of Iowa near the forty-first parallel, to be known as the "Central Pacific;" and the third via El Paso and the Colorado Valley, to be called the "Southern Pacific." It is a fact worthy of note that three great trunk lines were afterward built upon practically the same routes designated in the Douglas Bill of 1855, and that they bear the names therein proposed.
THE UNION PACIFIC
On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln approved the bill creating the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which was authorized "to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph, with the ap- purtenances, from a point on the one-hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, in the territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory," etc.
Section 14 of the act authorized and empowered the President of the United States to fix the eastern terminus at some point on the western boundary of the state of Iowa. In accordance with this provision, President Lincoln, on Novem- ber 1, 1863, designated Omaha, Nebraska, as the terminal point. On December 2. 1863, ground was broken at Omaha and the long talked of Pacific railroad was actually begun. The country was then in the midst of the great Civil war and the Union Pacific Railroad Company encountered many difficulties and delays. About the middle of November, 1867. four years from the time of starting, the track was completed to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
THE CENTRAL PACIFIC
Construction work on the Central Pacific was commenced at Sacramento, Cal., February 22, 1863, nearly nine months before the breaking of ground for the Union Pacific at Omaha. Among the men who were active in building the Central Pacific were Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles and
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Edward B. Crocker, Mark Hopkins and Cornelius Cole. The men who were most active in building the Union Pacific were William B. Ogden, first president of the company ; Dr. Thomas C. Durant, the first vice president; Peter A. Dey, who made the first survey ; Oakes Ames and Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, who was chief engineer in charge of the construction.
By the act of July 1, 1862, the Union Pacific Company was authorized to build its line to the western boundary of Nevada. On July 3, 1866, President Andrew Johnson approved a supplementary act giving the Central Pacific the right to build eastward of that boundary until a junction was formed with the Union Pacific. By the same bill the latter company was authorized to extend its line beyond the western boundary of Nevada, unless a junction should be sooner effected. With the passage of this act the race began in earnest, each company doing its utmost to reach the construction limits of its charter. In the winter of 1868-69 the grades of the two roads met and passed in Western Utah, paralleling until the Union Pacific had about two hundred miles graded beyond the most advanced work of the Central. Congress was called upon to adjust the differences, but before that body could act, the officials of the two companies agreed upon Pro- montory Point as the place of junction. There, on May 10, 1869, was driven the last spike that welded together the East and the West by a great transcon- tinental railway. Although the main line of the Union Pacific does not touch the State of Idaho, the completion of this great trunk line across the continent stimulated railroad building in the West and hastened the day when Idaho was to enjoy the advantages of railroad transportation.
IDAHO'S FIRST EFFORT
The first move toward securing a railroad for Idaho was made by the Third Territorial Legislature. On January 1I, 1866, Governor Lyon approved the act incorporating the Idaho, Salt Lake & Columbia River Branch Pacific Rail- road Company, which was authorized to "construct and operate a single or double track railroad from the north end of the Great Salt Lake, on the most practi- cable route, to a point about ten miles below Olds' Ferry, on the Snake River, and to connect and operate said road with any other railroad."
The incorporators named in the act were Caleb Lyon and H. C. Riggs, of Boise City ; E. Bohannon and John Wasson, of Ruby City; George Ainslie, John M. Cannady and W. H. Parkinson, of Boise County; E. T. Beatty and F. O. Nelson, of Alturas County; W. W. Thayer, S. W. Wright and S. S. Fenn, of Florence ; H. D. Clapp, Ben Holladay, Erastus Corning, William M. Tweed and Marshal O. Roberts, of New York City; John C. Ainsworth, Charles H. Larrabee and William L. Ladd, of Portland Ore .; Amos Reed and William L. Halsey, of Salt Lake City.
The Union Pacific was then under construction and the object of the incorpo- rators of the Idaho, Salt Lake & Columbia River Company was no doubt to form a junction with the transcontinental road at Salt Lake and thus provide railroad accommodations for the Northwest. Caleb Lyon, H. C. Riggs, E. Bo- hannon, George Ainslie, John M. Cannady, E. T. Beatty and John C. Ainsworth were named as the first board of directors, with instructions to meet in Boise City on July 5, 1866, organize and take the necessary steps for building the road. If the board met at that time, no record of such meeting has been pre-
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served. The country through which this road was to run was then sparsely settled and the incorporators no doubt found it difficult to enlist a sufficient amount of capital, and the project was abandoned.
The Seventh Territorial Legislature offered inducements to railroad build- ers by the passage of an act, approved by Governor Bennett on January 9, 1873, to exempt railroad property from taxation, the exemption to extend to January I, 1880.
UTAH & NORTHERN
A short time before the Union Pacific was completed, Brigham Young caused the Utah Central Railroad Company to be incorporated. On May 17, 1869, just a week after the Union and Central Pacific were joined at Promontory Point, work was commenced on the Utah Central and on January 10, 1870, the first train passed over the line from Ogden to Salt Lake City. John W. Young, a son of Brigham Young, then conceived the idea of building a railroad north- ward from Ogden to the mining districts of Montana. By an act of Congress, approved on March 3, 1873, his company was given a right of way through the public domain for the purpose of building a railroad "by way of the Bear River Valley, Soda Springs, Snake River Valley and through Montana to a connection with the Northern Pacific Railroad, said road to be completed within ten years after the passage of this act."
Considerable local capital was invested, but the actual construction of the road was largely due to Benjamin and Joseph Richardson, contractors of New York, who became interested in the enterprise and brought with them not only capital, but also experience.
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